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The Com is just a general term for crime communities on the Internet. Its not a specific group. The Com includes groups that commit crimes stretching from cyber

The Com is just a general term for crime communities on the Internet. Its not a specific group. The Com includes groups that commit crimes stretching from cybercrime to literally the worst crimes you can think of and the vast majority of this is done on Discord and Telegram. You can go down a really dark rabbit hole if you really dig deep into some of these groups within The Com. This is where the worst of the worst spend all their time.

torben-friis 2y ago
To what degree is this common knowledge? After 20 years of being highly online I'm surprised to be so blindsided. Not that I work in security or anything.
- jrexilius 2y ago
  Me to. I suspect its a combination of demographics and sub culture thing (I'm old, and out of the loop on a lot of pop culture and sub-variants). I have noticed a very high degree of nihilism and a sort of "morals are just a role you play in a game" kinda mentality with the younger crowd that looks and acts _very_ different to past generations though..
  - throw101010 2y ago
    Plato allegedly said it better than you thoudands of years ago... and if you are "old", maybe he was talking about you? ;) > What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them? All of this to say that generations judging each other are rarely objective and very prone to both confirmation bias and broad generalization. But if are going to generalize, how about this, transgression is part of a healthy growth for most young people (we all test limits by crossing lines one time or an other, some more than others), and most old people (conveniently) forget that they were doing exactly the same with the tools they had at the time. Let's take a step back and appreciate that societies around the world tend to become less violent and less criminal... when these trends might reverse we can start talking again about the decadence of young people and it's consequences.
    - jrexilius 2y ago
      So, in the context of the US, yes, those trends are reversing, so it is apropos to examine it (see article content). I am fully aware of the tendency of grumpy old people decrying the amoral youth, my point is that the degree of nihilsim seems qualitatively different than 70's burn-out, 80's goth, or 90's grunge, or what have you. It appears more like a kind of defeatism than rebellion (the more normal youth passtime). Who knows, maybe during the great depression the younger generation was in a similar place, don't know, not THAT old ;-) But it seems less a case of "those old peoples values aren't MY values" and more of a "there are no values" differnce than previous generatonal divides.
      - plastic3169 2y ago
        Surprised that generation who named themselves slackers gave birth to kids that also don’t have any vision and take pride in not caring about anything? Also the group is so varied you can’t generalize of what the age group is about. If I think of young person I think of mrbeast or the kids who sit on the road to block the traffic cause they care immensly. I always thought the youth of today just hustle and influence and try to build it themselves and totally lack the ability to chill out. Happy to know there lurks some nihilists somewhere.
        noobermin 2y ago
        I wouldn't say they take pride in not caring actually.
    - dagss 2y ago
      This quote is made up I think (e.g https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/respectfully-quoted/socrates-469399-b-c/ https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/respectfully-quoted/socrate...) Even if it wasn't made up it, it would not be all that relevant IMO because it would not have to mean that "adults have always complained about youth but they always turn out fine", it could also mean "the quality of a society goes up and down over the centuries, in cycles, and both we and Plato/Socrates are/were on a downturn when things started going worse".
  - psytrancefan 2y ago
    You probably haven't heard of the com if you have a sex life.
- throwup238 2y ago
  Have you ever used the Tor browser or FreeNet? The seedier parts of the internet (“dark web”) are surprisingly easy to access. It’s just about equivalent to knowing about torrents. (Not safe for life warning)
- ehnto 2y ago
  I suspect it's because it's a label put onto the workhorse of modern crime syndicates, not a vanity title like a gangs have. It's a web of disparate barely connected mercenary dots, so I imagine most people in "The Com" don't actually realise it's a phenomenon that has been named, and that they are a part of it.
  - ehnto 2y ago
    I think I am wrong about this. I am seeing mixed opinions about how much and what kind of crime "The Com" covers, I'm probably too out of the loop to comment further to be honest.
- booleandilemma 2y ago
  I find it amusing that it popped up in this political context too. It feels very FUD-y. Oh no, Musk hired someone from "The Com"!
- chonkerz 2y ago
  Teenage gangs forming on the internet and thats what they call themselves now
- leftcenterright 2y ago
  It's resally common knowledge if you work as a Cyber crime responder or visit some of those forums (e.g. breachforums). Krebs of course has to have a few good contacts in those circles. From Europol: > Violent online groups are targeting and manipulating vulnerable children and young people across widely accessible online platforms. There are multiple groups, associations and evolving subgroups that make up the online network known as The Com – short for community. The Com is a virtual community of groups and individuals who conduct illicit activities that glorify serious violence, cruelty, and gore. > Elements of The Com network are known to have extreme ideological views and victimise children, coercing them to commit violent acts. Predators groom their victims through different methods – one approach is establishing friendships based on trust or romantic relationships. Another technique involves the use of power or coercive tactics with one goal – taking control over the victims, while getting them to engage in serious violence, self-harm, or other gruesome. It’s a vicious cycle - the predators in this network influence children or young people into conducting acts that increasingly shame, incriminate, or isolate them, this in turn makes them more vulnerable to further exploitation. https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/law-enforcement-targets-online-cult-communities-dedicated-to-extremely-violent-child-abuse https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/law-...
- jandrese 2y ago
  I feel like back in 2016 when a reporter asked Donald Trump if he would disavow the Proud Boys and most peoples response was “the what boys?” If you aren’t immersed in the culture you don’t know who the movers and shakers are.
  - throitallaway 2y ago
    Trump says a lot of things. > “They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do,” Trump said during an April 2022 (talking of The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025) > “I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” Trump said in the opening moments of his September debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. “That’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.”
gyudin 2y ago
It is not. You could literally spend 1 minute googling to check that the only mentions of it point to the same website.
demosthanos 2y ago
So is "The Com" an actual distinct concept that exists outside of security blogs, or is it more or less the same as "the scene" is used in other communities—just a generic term for all the unaffiliated people who happen to participate in a particular (in this case nefarious) hobby? The way Krebs uses this first makes it sound like The Com is the name of a specific gang, but when I dig into the details the definition gets really fuzzy and starts to read like it literally just means "English speaking cybercriminals". If it's the latter, I'm not sure why we need a name for it.
- impulser_ 2y ago
  "The Com" isn't a specific group of people despite what people say. It's just what people who investigate call these crime communities because it easier to just have a general name for all of them then to name each and every one of them because their are literally hundreds of them and members move between them so a single member of "The Com" can be part of many communities within "Com"
  - chonkerz 2y ago
    They call themselves "the com"
- nonchalantsui 2y ago
  It's distinct in that these groups aren't isolated from each other, there's member overlap and subgroups splintering from each other due to trying to avoid authorities. It's also distinct in the type of crimes. Sextortion involving young kids/creation and sharing of CSAM merging with extreme political beliefs and encouraging those beliefs, with a specific focus to target young kids particularly those vulnerable enough to not have parents immediately notice. The criminals are often also on the younger side, like 19 year olds leading sex cults[1]. "The Com" goes by other names due to these groups being in a lot of different regions under different monikers and subgroups. 764 network, cvlt network, harm nation, etc. All the same general type of crime and target groups. Here's some resources warning people about them: https://rcmp.ca/en/news/2024/08/rcmp-reminds-canadians-about-violent-online-groups-targeting-youth https://rcmp.ca/en/news/2024/08/rcmp-reminds-canadians-about... https://www.wired.com/story/764-com-child-predator-network/ https://www.wired.com/story/764-com-child-predator-network/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/764-predator-discord-telegram/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/20... [1] https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/sextortion-coms-inside-a-vile-child-exploitation-cult-run-by-nazi-linked-teens/ https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/sextortion-coms-inside-a-vile...
hot_topic 2y ago
no it isn't. What a blind take. As someone who has ventured down these forums when I was younger. Its a mix of gamers/programmers/online hustlers. Some of it is grey area, some if it is renting out RDP's/VPNS for malicious users acting as middlemen for the criminals. The mob mentality of rule following software engineers on here who are throwing out the accusation that these are all hardened criminals that want to burn down society here are a testament to the fact that hackernews is a cesspool of careerists. If you haven't ventured down these, I would even argue that you've no idea how the internet actually functions outside of your usual entertainment holes.
- demosthanos 2y ago
  Even Urban Dictionary, hardly a site dominated by rule-following career software engineers, defines a Com as revolving around crime: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Com https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Com Maybe Urban Dictionary is also populated by people who misunderstand the community, or maybe you weren't as deep as you thought.
  - Pigalowda 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - genewitch 2y ago
      What kind of a take is this? UD has the cess but it is also archival and useful. I use it several times a year to do topical writeups for friends about words.
      - Pigalowda 2y ago
        [flagged]
  - chrisco255 2y ago
    Anyone can submit entries to Urban Dictionary.
Liquix 2y ago
but the question is why operate on such insecure, backdoored, government friendly platforms? if they're smart enough to commit cybercrimes, why make such a basic opsec blunder? or are the skiddie tiers of these networks all that's visible/accessible to reporters?
- tsimionescu 2y ago
  > if they're smart enough to commit cybercrimes, why make such a basic opsec blunder? Why do you assume that they have to be smart to commit cyber crimes? As a general rule, most criminals are as dumb if not dumber than most regular people. Cyber crime is no different. Consider that cyber crime is not (just) hacking, it includes things like calling someone's grandma to convince her she needs to wire you $40k now or someone might go to prison for a car accident. Or at least texting this over WhatsApp.
  - psychoslave 2y ago
    Maybe by binding the idea of smartness with the ability to think beyond the given and possibly not blindly obey exogenous rules. Of course smartness is a relatively independent parameter from ethics. If the law requires contributing to some genocides, blindly obey is not the same ethical dilemma as if it forbids to practice torture and murder.
- chonkerz 2y ago
  no government backdoor necessary when you join very large crime group chats and try to buy illegal services
pinoy420 2y ago
“A man known as 4chan”
red-iron-pine 2y ago
"The Com" is like "Anonymous" or "the scene", like talking about the "new york heavy metal scene". it's not one coherent group but a mix of them, sometimes overlapping but often not. they hangout in the same spaces, sometimes, but also not.
- washadjeffmad 2y ago
  That's how it was (is) on IRC 25+ years ago. The Com sounds like the equivalent of idling on #2600 general.

torben-friis 2y ago

To what degree is this common knowledge? After 20 years of being highly online I'm surprised to be so blindsided. Not that I work in security or anything.

jrexilius 2y ago
Me to. I suspect its a combination of demographics and sub culture thing (I'm old, and out of the loop on a lot of pop culture and sub-variants). I have noticed a very high degree of nihilism and a sort of "morals are just a role you play in a game" kinda mentality with the younger crowd that looks and acts _very_ different to past generations though..
- throw101010 2y ago
  Plato allegedly said it better than you thoudands of years ago... and if you are "old", maybe he was talking about you? ;) > What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them? All of this to say that generations judging each other are rarely objective and very prone to both confirmation bias and broad generalization. But if are going to generalize, how about this, transgression is part of a healthy growth for most young people (we all test limits by crossing lines one time or an other, some more than others), and most old people (conveniently) forget that they were doing exactly the same with the tools they had at the time. Let's take a step back and appreciate that societies around the world tend to become less violent and less criminal... when these trends might reverse we can start talking again about the decadence of young people and it's consequences.
  - jrexilius 2y ago
    So, in the context of the US, yes, those trends are reversing, so it is apropos to examine it (see article content). I am fully aware of the tendency of grumpy old people decrying the amoral youth, my point is that the degree of nihilsim seems qualitatively different than 70's burn-out, 80's goth, or 90's grunge, or what have you. It appears more like a kind of defeatism than rebellion (the more normal youth passtime). Who knows, maybe during the great depression the younger generation was in a similar place, don't know, not THAT old ;-) But it seems less a case of "those old peoples values aren't MY values" and more of a "there are no values" differnce than previous generatonal divides.
    - plastic3169 2y ago
      Surprised that generation who named themselves slackers gave birth to kids that also don’t have any vision and take pride in not caring about anything? Also the group is so varied you can’t generalize of what the age group is about. If I think of young person I think of mrbeast or the kids who sit on the road to block the traffic cause they care immensly. I always thought the youth of today just hustle and influence and try to build it themselves and totally lack the ability to chill out. Happy to know there lurks some nihilists somewhere.
      - noobermin 2y ago
        I wouldn't say they take pride in not caring actually.
  - dagss 2y ago
    This quote is made up I think (e.g https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/respectfully-quoted/socrates-469399-b-c/ https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/respectfully-quoted/socrate...) Even if it wasn't made up it, it would not be all that relevant IMO because it would not have to mean that "adults have always complained about youth but they always turn out fine", it could also mean "the quality of a society goes up and down over the centuries, in cycles, and both we and Plato/Socrates are/were on a downturn when things started going worse".
- psytrancefan 2y ago
  You probably haven't heard of the com if you have a sex life.
throwup238 2y ago
Have you ever used the Tor browser or FreeNet? The seedier parts of the internet (“dark web”) are surprisingly easy to access. It’s just about equivalent to knowing about torrents. (Not safe for life warning)
ehnto 2y ago
I suspect it's because it's a label put onto the workhorse of modern crime syndicates, not a vanity title like a gangs have. It's a web of disparate barely connected mercenary dots, so I imagine most people in "The Com" don't actually realise it's a phenomenon that has been named, and that they are a part of it.
- ehnto 2y ago
  I think I am wrong about this. I am seeing mixed opinions about how much and what kind of crime "The Com" covers, I'm probably too out of the loop to comment further to be honest.
booleandilemma 2y ago
I find it amusing that it popped up in this political context too. It feels very FUD-y. Oh no, Musk hired someone from "The Com"!
chonkerz 2y ago
Teenage gangs forming on the internet and thats what they call themselves now
leftcenterright 2y ago
It's resally common knowledge if you work as a Cyber crime responder or visit some of those forums (e.g. breachforums). Krebs of course has to have a few good contacts in those circles. From Europol: > Violent online groups are targeting and manipulating vulnerable children and young people across widely accessible online platforms. There are multiple groups, associations and evolving subgroups that make up the online network known as The Com – short for community. The Com is a virtual community of groups and individuals who conduct illicit activities that glorify serious violence, cruelty, and gore. > Elements of The Com network are known to have extreme ideological views and victimise children, coercing them to commit violent acts. Predators groom their victims through different methods – one approach is establishing friendships based on trust or romantic relationships. Another technique involves the use of power or coercive tactics with one goal – taking control over the victims, while getting them to engage in serious violence, self-harm, or other gruesome. It’s a vicious cycle - the predators in this network influence children or young people into conducting acts that increasingly shame, incriminate, or isolate them, this in turn makes them more vulnerable to further exploitation. https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/law-enforcement-targets-online-cult-communities-dedicated-to-extremely-violent-child-abuse https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/law-...
jandrese 2y ago
I feel like back in 2016 when a reporter asked Donald Trump if he would disavow the Proud Boys and most peoples response was “the what boys?” If you aren’t immersed in the culture you don’t know who the movers and shakers are.
- throitallaway 2y ago
  Trump says a lot of things. > “They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do,” Trump said during an April 2022 (talking of The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025) > “I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” Trump said in the opening moments of his September debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. “That’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.”

gyudin 2y ago

It is not. You could literally spend 1 minute googling to check that the only mentions of it point to the same website.

demosthanos 2y ago

So is "The Com" an actual distinct concept that exists outside of security blogs, or is it more or less the same as "the scene" is used in other communities—just a generic term for all the unaffiliated people who happen to participate in a particular (in this case nefarious) hobby? The way Krebs uses this first makes it sound like The Com is the name of a specific gang, but when I dig into the details the definition gets really fuzzy and starts to read like it literally just means "English speaking cybercriminals". If it's the latter, I'm not sure why we need a name for it.

impulser_ 2y ago
"The Com" isn't a specific group of people despite what people say. It's just what people who investigate call these crime communities because it easier to just have a general name for all of them then to name each and every one of them because their are literally hundreds of them and members move between them so a single member of "The Com" can be part of many communities within "Com"
- chonkerz 2y ago
  They call themselves "the com"
nonchalantsui 2y ago
It's distinct in that these groups aren't isolated from each other, there's member overlap and subgroups splintering from each other due to trying to avoid authorities. It's also distinct in the type of crimes. Sextortion involving young kids/creation and sharing of CSAM merging with extreme political beliefs and encouraging those beliefs, with a specific focus to target young kids particularly those vulnerable enough to not have parents immediately notice. The criminals are often also on the younger side, like 19 year olds leading sex cults[1]. "The Com" goes by other names due to these groups being in a lot of different regions under different monikers and subgroups. 764 network, cvlt network, harm nation, etc. All the same general type of crime and target groups. Here's some resources warning people about them: https://rcmp.ca/en/news/2024/08/rcmp-reminds-canadians-about-violent-online-groups-targeting-youth https://rcmp.ca/en/news/2024/08/rcmp-reminds-canadians-about... https://www.wired.com/story/764-com-child-predator-network/ https://www.wired.com/story/764-com-child-predator-network/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/764-predator-discord-telegram/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/20... [1] https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/sextortion-coms-inside-a-vile-child-exploitation-cult-run-by-nazi-linked-teens/ https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/sextortion-coms-inside-a-vile...

hot_topic 2y ago

no it isn't. What a blind take. As someone who has ventured down these forums when I was younger. Its a mix of gamers/programmers/online hustlers. Some of it is grey area, some if it is renting out RDP's/VPNS for malicious users acting as middlemen for the criminals. The mob mentality of rule following software engineers on here who are throwing out the accusation that these are all hardened criminals that want to burn down society here are a testament to the fact that hackernews is a cesspool of careerists. If you haven't ventured down these, I would even argue that you've no idea how the internet actually functions outside of your usual entertainment holes.

demosthanos 2y ago
Even Urban Dictionary, hardly a site dominated by rule-following career software engineers, defines a Com as revolving around crime: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Com https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Com Maybe Urban Dictionary is also populated by people who misunderstand the community, or maybe you weren't as deep as you thought.
- Pigalowda 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - genewitch 2y ago
    What kind of a take is this? UD has the cess but it is also archival and useful. I use it several times a year to do topical writeups for friends about words.
    - Pigalowda 2y ago
      [flagged]
- chrisco255 2y ago
  Anyone can submit entries to Urban Dictionary.

Liquix 2y ago

but the question is why operate on such insecure, backdoored, government friendly platforms? if they're smart enough to commit cybercrimes, why make such a basic opsec blunder? or are the skiddie tiers of these networks all that's visible/accessible to reporters?

tsimionescu 2y ago
> if they're smart enough to commit cybercrimes, why make such a basic opsec blunder? Why do you assume that they have to be smart to commit cyber crimes? As a general rule, most criminals are as dumb if not dumber than most regular people. Cyber crime is no different. Consider that cyber crime is not (just) hacking, it includes things like calling someone's grandma to convince her she needs to wire you $40k now or someone might go to prison for a car accident. Or at least texting this over WhatsApp.
- psychoslave 2y ago
  Maybe by binding the idea of smartness with the ability to think beyond the given and possibly not blindly obey exogenous rules. Of course smartness is a relatively independent parameter from ethics. If the law requires contributing to some genocides, blindly obey is not the same ethical dilemma as if it forbids to practice torture and murder.
chonkerz 2y ago
no government backdoor necessary when you join very large crime group chats and try to buy illegal services

pinoy420 2y ago

“A man known as 4chan”

red-iron-pine 2y ago

"The Com" is like "Anonymous" or "the scene", like talking about the "new york heavy metal scene". it's not one coherent group but a mix of them, sometimes overlapping but often not. they hangout in the same spaces, sometimes, but also not.

washadjeffmad 2y ago
That's how it was (is) on IRC 25+ years ago. The Com sounds like the equivalent of idling on #2600 general.